Earlier today I decided to buy and release some feeder crickets from my local pet store in honor of the last day of Saga Dawa. I took them to a close-by wooded area with some redwood duff and ivy, which I read are good conditions for crickets. Towards the end of the practice, I started to feel very anxious without any clue as to why. It's been about 30 minutes and I still have an objectless panic feeling that I can't discern. Is it possible that this is some kind of karmic effect of doing the life release wrong somehow?

Any feedback and speculation is appreciated.

I am a lustful, angry dullard with no power of realization. Do not put anything I say into practice without first confirming it with a qualified teacher.

Just speculation ,but I doubt it had anything to do with the cricket release. My thought is that your unconscious mind was picking something up from your surroundings while you were in the woods; maybe there was a predator or snake nearby, or the surroundings reminded you of something in your forgotten past, or you had ignored a "No Trespassing" sign. I don't think you can release a few crickets wrongly, provided that they are native to the habitat you released them in, and they weren't carrying a disease.

I did as much research as I could before hand. This wasn't my first cricket release and this hasn't happened before. I know crickets live in Santa Cruz (I'm listening to some chirp right now) but I couldn't figure out the exact species of the feeder crickets. I have no idea how to tell if they were diseased. I figured I would err on the side of benefiting beings, thinking that even if they died quickly in the while that beats wasting away in a plastic box or being fed right to a lizard, and this way they might form a connection to Chenrezig. But the animal real is so complex and brutal, I'm still second guessing as to whether or not I did something right.

I am a lustful, angry dullard with no power of realization. Do not put anything I say into practice without first confirming it with a qualified teacher.

Earlier today I decided to buy and release some feeder crickets from my local pet store in honor of the last day of Saga Dawa. I took them to a close-by wooded area with some redwood duff and ivy, which I read are good conditions for crickets. Towards the end of the practice, I started to feel very anxious without any clue as to why. It's been about 30 minutes and I still have an objectless panic feeling that I can't discern. Is it possible that this is some kind of karmic effect of doing the life release wrong somehow?

Any feedback and speculation is appreciated.

I think that you just need to sit with the feeling and observe its nature. I do believe you will find that there is nothing there to be concerned about.

If you feel that you made some sort of mistake during the practice, then do a mala of 100 syllable Vajrasattva mantra (or the shorter mantra depending on which you have transmission for) in order to purify any errors. That's the standard procedure.